South America - Environmental Paper Network

Brazil rises against eucalyptus plantations: ‘These are not forests!’

Around 1000 women from Sem Terra ocupam protest in Aracruz (Espirito Santo, Brazil). Foto: © MST On March 13th, in the city of Aracruz (Espírito Santo, Brazil), 1,000 women from the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) occupied land owned by Suzano Papel e Celulose, the world’s largest pulp producer, to protest the environmental impact of […]

Expanding poverty, not prosperity: the impacts of the World Bank’s industrial tree plantations in Paraguay

A new briefing from the Environmental Paper Network, Bank Information Center (BIC), AXIAL Naturaleza y Cultura, Instituto Maira, and Heñoi highlights the impacts of a proposed project by the World Bank aimed at expanding industrial tree plantations in Paraguay. The project is being put forward by the World Bank’s development arm, IBRD (International Bank for […]

Brazil: brand new pulp mill, the same old story

Suzano has announced the operational start-up of its new huge eucalyptus pulp mill in Ribas do Rio Pardo in the federal state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The pulp mill, with a production capacity of 2.55 million tons per year, is presented by Suzano as the world’s largest pulp line, and it is the second […]

Pulp Fiction: the dystopian reality of the origin of your paper

A new report by Environmental Paper Network International debunks the story that paper is ‘green’ and ‘renewable’. Evidence piles up on the ecological and human impacts of the pulp expansion frenzy. 16 July 2024 – Today, the Environmental Paper Network International has launched a daunting report on Suzano, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp and […]

Chile, pulp and paper industry’s war on the poor

Land disputes in peri-urban areas involving the powerful pulp and paper cartel are on the rise in Chile. In addition to longstanding issues of land ownership, these disputes are now being exacerbated by a widespread housing crisis. Celulosa Arauco y Constitución, the country’s biggest pulp and paper company, has recently taken a confrontational stance against […]

Forest fires in Chile – chronicle of a catastrophe foretold

Glenn Beltz/flicker (CC BY 2.0) At least 46 people have died, and more than 1,100 homes have been destroyed in the worst forest fires to hit Chile in a decade. In the first week of February, the fires have been commonly attributed to climate change. This is correct, but only part of the truth. What […]

Suzano’s ongoing disrespect for local communities and their traditional land

On 28 November, Mr. Antônio Sapezeiro, leader of the Quilombola community of Nova Vista in Sapê do Norte, São Mateus, (Espirito Santo, Brazil) was filmed lying, immobilised and defenceless, on the concrete road, surrounded by Suzano security guards and military police officers called by them. This is not uncommon behaviour for Suzano, the biggest pulp […]

Caustic soda spill at UPM controversial plant – more than 70 civil society organisations demand action from the Uruguayan government.

Over 70 Uruguayan and international civil society organisations wrote an open letter to the Uruguayan authorities to address the largest chemical spill in the history of Uruguay. The spill occurred in a pulp mill owned by UPM, a Finnish pulp and paper company. The demands of the organisations are twofold – a total shutdown of […]

Chile on fire. Civil society had warned about the risks and demanded to change the forestry model

Five days of raging fires have already burned more than a thousand homes and more than 200,000 hectares,[1] with more than 200 active outbreaks[2] and the loss of 26 lives between the regions of Ñuble and Los Ríos, territories dominated by exotic monoculture tree plantations controlled by the Chilean forestry and cellulose industry business. “Forest […]